The Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto

[waterdigger2]

Aight . I made it to page 41 so far . I read through all sorts of stuff . I see a heat pump test. But i havent seen how he built the heat pump. What am i missing.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Aight . I made it to page 41 so far . I read through all sorts of stuff . I see a heat pump test. But i havent seen how he built the heat pump. What am i missing.

OK, with the unit UNPLUGGED, pull the cover off of your air conditioner.

You can kill yourself with the cover off, so don't do anything stupid...

If you have a table to set it on, it will be a bit more civilized... otherwise, squat on the floor next to the unit.

Make sure the unit is turned off and unplugged.

Now, with out touching the unit, plug it in.

Nothing should be happening...

Next, turn the knob or push the button to cool. (if you took photos of what you have I wouldn't have to talk to you like I was a blind man).

You should hear the sound of the fan running, but you will have to wait a couple of minutes for the compressor to start running.

It is normal for there to be a pause after you turn it on and before the compressor actually starts to work. This is a safety feature for the compressor.

Did all this stuff happen?

-AC

[waterdigger2]

Yeah . It turned on and compressor turnt on . Right now i dont have a way to upload pics ill get a camera when i can

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Yeah . It turned on and compressor turnt on . Right now i dont have a way to upload pics ill get a camera when i can

OK, if you let it run awhile, you should get cold air coming out of the front and the back fins should be getting warm to the touch...

Is this happening?

-AC

[waterdigger2]

Yeah . Fins are warm to touch . Not hot or nothin.

Found on page 53 of this thread the parts and everthing . But still no way to put togather . Made it to 110 so far havent found what im huntin really.

Im thinkin of gettin a ac that has the heater and the Ac after i get a ac workin to heat the 2 bedrooms and bath Just make make it more efficient with the ground loops i got. Rest of the house can just get cold .

[waterdigger2]

Well finally. Made it to page 161 . Lots of good info is on there . But a whole lot is chit chat kinda needs some sort of index of sort to find the real info and the non useful for users who use dial up some times. Thankfully i get to get on still slow dsl every now and then. I found a diy well drillin thread . But it doesnt work that Ac hacker made. Or at least that link didnt work. Th drillin process is what i do have plenty of info and advice on doin that. But im not very electronics savy so say. When you dont have enough water flow you can add polygel that makes the water thicker and the cuttings float up. But like vlad said . Water flow is crucial and makes things go smoother

[NiHaoMike]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Yeah . Fins are warm to touch . Not hot or nothin.

Found on page 53 of this thread the parts and everthing . But still no way to put togather . Made it to 110 so far havent found what im huntin really.

Im thinkin of gettin a ac that has the heater and the Ac after i get a ac workin to heat the 2 bedrooms and bath Just make make it more efficient with the ground loops i got. Rest of the house can just get cold .

If it's above freezing, you can easily turn a window A/C into a heat pump by turning it around.

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by NiHaoMike

If it's above freezing, you can easily turn a window A/C into a heat pump by turning it around.

NiHaoMike,

Are you aware that this guy has ALREADY drilled 300' deep boreholes and has the grouted pipe in place and wants to make a GSHP?

-AC

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by waterdigger2

Yeah . Fins are warm to touch . Not hot or nothin.

The part of your A/C that is warm is called the condenser, and the part that the cold air comes out of is called the evaporator.

There is a tiny tube that is called the cap tube that might get frosty when your A/C is running. This tube is matched to your compressor, so you will want to take care not to bend, break or damage it.

You have some choices here...

You can put the whole A/C unit in a window backwards, sort of what was previously mentioned, or you can remove the condenser from the unit and braze some copper lines from the A/C to the evaporator. If you do it this way, you will still need some kind of fan (probablly not real big) to blow air through it to warm the room or house or whatever. The advantage to this is that your finished project will be really quite in the house. The disadvantage is it will require more work.

The part of your A/C that has the cold part (the evaporator) will need to be removed and you will instead, braze in the heat exchanger in it's place, but you precious little cap tube will be brazed in just ahead of your new evaporator/Heat Exchanger.

When you do all of this, notice that the tiny cap tube has larger diameter tube connected to it on both ends. You DO NOT want to cut into the tiny cap tube itself, because you will change its length, and its length is very important.

So, are you going to do this stuff, or is your relative who is a HVAC tech?

When you open up the refrigerant lines, the refrigerant gas can escape into the atmosphere, which is against the law. Your HVAC tech relative will have the equipment and knowledge to do this legally.

You are also going to need some kind of circulator pump to circulate water through your bore hole tube and heat exchanger.

So, don't go wildly cutting tubing until you have a plan for how this is all going to come apart, and more importantly, go back together.

And go borrow, or go to a thrift store and get a cheap digital camera and take photos... and show us what you are doing.

If you can afford a 6-pack of beer, you can afford a camera.

-AC

[NiHaoMike]

He was thinking about buying a window heat pump, which is of no extra value in a heating only geothermal build. Geothermal doesn't need defrosting.

sub $45 Homemade chiller
Not as good as a proper heat exchanger but it does work pretty well. Good solution while you either build up a proper unit or wait until spring to do it right. Use distilled water and RV antifreeze (propylene glycol, safer than car antifreeze) as the fluid.

You'll probably want to swap the cap tube for a TXV once you put in a proper heat exchanger since TXVs are cheap on the surplus market and they improve efficiency. Don't forget to replace the filter drier as well.